Abstract

The taxonomy of our commercially important
marine catfishes is still in a state of uncertainty.
The nomenclature has suffered a lot of
changes brought about by various taxonomists.
When some authors have used the genus name
Tachysurus, and hence the family name Tachysuridae,
others preferred the name Anus and
the family name Ariidae. Valenciennes (1840),
Bleeker(1847), Gunther (1864), Day (1878),
Weber and Beaufort (1913), Herre (1953),
Jordan (1963), Fischer and Whithead (1974)
and Fischer and Bianchi (1984) all have used the
name >4r/us Val. 1840, whereas Fowler (1941),
Chandy (1953), Munro (1955), Tilak (1965),
Jayaram and Dhanze (1978 a, 1978 b) and
Menon (1979) replaced the name Ar/us Val.
1840 by Tachysurus Lacepede 1803.